Wednesday, Jan 18, 2017, 12:29 pm

How the American Postal Workers Union Scored One of its Biggest Wins Ever

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APWU President President Mark Dimondstein credits the success of the campaign to the thousands of hours of unpaid volunteer work by union members, and also to impressive demonstrations of solidarity by other unions, particularly teachers unions. (American Postal Workers Union)

Members of one of the largest labor unions for post office workers are celebrating the success of a three-year campaign to roll back a commercial alliance between the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and office supplies retailer Staples that threatened a major advance in the privatization of the national mail system. Coming just before the accession of Donald Trump to the White House, the victory marks one of the most successful corporate campaigns by any labor union during the Obama era.

The success also marks the rejuvenation of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) under the leadership of Mark Dimondstein. First elected as president in 2013, Dimondstein promised union members a more aggressive attack on USPS privatization initiatives and a more progressive union overall. He delivered on those promises with the Staples campaign, and stood out in 2016 as one of the few union leaders to back insurgent Bernie Sanders’ campaign for the White House.

In an interview with In These Times, the union leader credits the success of the campaign to the thousands of hours of unpaid volunteer work by union members, and also to impressive demonstrations of solidarity by other unions, particularly teachers unions. Launched in 2014, the campaign gained early momentum, he says, and landed some of its most effective blows in mid-2014 and early 2015. Over the course of 2016, executives at USPS and Staples were in a slow retreat and formally caved in a letter to the union announcing the cancellation of the privatization effort earlier this month.

Union members were immediately galvanized in opposition when the USPS-Staples deal was announced as a “pilot program” in 2013. The pilot called for Staples to open “postal counters” in its existing retail stores where most standard post office services would be available. Such counters would be introduced in a number of select test markets, and gradually expanded to more than 1,000 Staples outlets nationwide. The workers at these counters would be non-union Staples employees, effectively replacing APWU members.

“It was obvious from the start that they were not being honest about the intentions of this program. If these Staples outlets were successful, then the next step would have been to close the regular post offices in those markets, and eliminate the union workers. It was a backdoor privatization. Our members are not stupid, and they saw it for what it was right from the beginning,” Dimondstein says.

But the act of solidarity that carried the most powerful punch was the decision by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA) to support the boycott. According to Dimondstein, “There are 3 or 4 million teachers in this country, and in a lot of cities and towns the teachers are given the power to go out and buy school supplies. For Staples, these are customers who come back year after year. This is market power that has real meaning to corporations like Staples.”

AFT President Randi Weingarten even encouraged the APWU to stage a public demonstration against Staples at the same time as the AFT's 2014 convention in Los Angeles. Weingarten personally led a large group of teachers from the convention to an APWU rally, held at the Staples Center sports arena, and delivered a fiery speech in support of the postal workers. She backed up the rhetoric, according to Dimondstein, with active efforts to get AFT affiliates to back the boycott nationwide.

“It was at that moment,” that the balance of power shifted in favor of the union, says Dimondstein. Other elements of the corporate campaign—public demonstrations, a legal attack at the National Labor Relations Board, nationwide publicity efforts, etc.—were beginning have an effect, but the teachers' efforts seemed to pull it all together in the public mind, the union leader says.

Even so, it would take massive overreach by the corporate managers of Staples to drive a final stake through the heart of the USPS-Staples deal. In February 2015, Staples announced it would buy retail competitor Office Depot in a deal valued at $6.3 billion. But the combination of the two large office supply retailers raised obvious anti-trust issues. (A similar merger was blocked in 1997 by the Federal Trade Commission.)

The APWU jumped into action to oppose the merger, mobilizing other potential opponents and meeting with anti-trust regulators at the trade commission.

“Our research team did a just fantastic job. It’s hard for me to see how the merger could possibly have ever been approved after looking at their work,” Dimondstein says.

Sure enough, the trade commission ruled against the Staples-Office Depot deal, embarrassing Staples CEO Ronald Sargent and later costing him his job. The company was also forced to pay Office Depot about $250 million in a “break-up fee” for the failed merger, Dimondstein says.

“We opposed the merger and that put us squarely on the side of the consumer. As a union, we always want to be on the side of the consumer and that drives a lot what we do,” the APWU leader says.

Asked about the cost of the campaign, Dimondstein declines to answer directly. He insists, however, that the union spent less than $5 million and much of the cost was borne by unpaid volunteers from the membership.

“We were willing to spend whatever it took. But it doesn’t take as much as you’d think when you have a united membership willing to pitch in. We put in substantial resources, but our feeling [is] that this is precisely the kind of thing that union dues are for,” he says.

If the campaign presents a single overriding lesson, then it is the importance of labor union solidarity, Dimondstein concludes. Within USPS, there are multiple unions so “it is always divide and conquer with them.” But APWU was able to spearhead an effective coalition with other unions and also enlist the AFL-CIO in the boycott.

“The staying power of our own members is really what carried us and our allies forward,” Dimondstein says. “They had the confidence that workers can win—and will win.”

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Bruce Vail is a Baltimore-based freelance writer with decades of experience covering labor and business stories for newspapers, magazines and new media. He was a reporter for Bloomberg BNA's Daily Labor Report, covering collective bargaining issues in a wide range of industries, and a maritime industry reporter and editor for the Journal of Commerce, serving both in the newspaper's New York City headquarters and in the Washington, D.C. bureau.

Still the best value in the world! Dependable, honest. And pays a family wage to people in big cities and small towns. Win, win, win

Posted by DawnBirdsong on 2017-01-24 02:07:12

You need to read up on how congress requires the USPS to fund pensions for postal workers not yet born. Under that restriction the USPS is a raging success. If Google, Amazon, or any major bank had to fund pensions for a generation of workers still in diapers, they'd be out of business within a couple weeks.

Posted by beesonplants on 2017-01-22 19:58:32

You need to read up about postal service and the history of things like electric utilities in rural areas, and what it took to get rural residents these things.

Posted by beesonplants on 2017-01-22 19:56:24

lol....anytime we get the fake "i have 2 degrees"....you can rest assured this fool is living in his basement spending the day listening to hate talk radio.never would it occur to him to actually learn about the things he talks about.

Posted by Jade Zee on 2017-01-20 18:41:55

demonstrating how watching fox news makes you dumber than not watching anything at all

Posted by Jade Zee on 2017-01-20 18:33:46

You seem to miss the point writerink. Rural areas don't present a ripe opportunity for profiteering, so those that live there don't count. They can just pick up their mail from a friend in the city when they visit to sell their pigs or have to come to town to shop at WalMart. Hope that clears that up for you and saves "Thinker" from having to explain further how the "market" works to ensure that everybody gets what they need at a fair price [...and to hell with them if it doesn't]

Otherwise put its a system built on socialism for the rich and free enterprise for the rest of us.

Posted by Ignatius Kizoo on 2017-01-20 17:35:32

what you said! [especially the "neo-libtard" bit.

Posted by Ignatius Kizoo on 2017-01-20 17:25:52

"...how are we going to pay for all these social programs that operate at millions of dollars in losses?"Are you suggesting that, given a free hand, the "owners" as you've referred to them, would operate social programs, and beyond that, ones that would make a profit?

Posted by Ignatius Kizoo on 2017-01-20 17:23:03

Solidarity...one for working stiffs who hold their heads up and march off to their jobs every day to do necessary work to the benefit of others. Heroes one and all. Solidarity brothers and sisters.

Posted by Ignatius Kizoo on 2017-01-20 17:20:52

You must be "No One" then...I've heard about you...second cousin to Nobody...responsible for Nothing and good for the same. Can't honestly say I'm glad to meet you

Posted by Ignatius Kizoo on 2017-01-20 17:17:33

"...most of them [i.e. unions] however are much stronger donors to the democratic party, "Which ones, and stronger donors than who, the Koch brothers?

Sorry...I can't comment any further. I've got to stop typing and go get you some help...hey...hey...ya you...can you lend a hand here? Thinker is off his meds again. Remember last time when he ran down the hall wearing nothing but a Napoleon hat yelling at everybody to come help him storm the Bastille???

Posted by Ignatius Kizoo on 2017-01-20 17:14:01

"...the Unions are as powerful as any other special interests out there at forcing congress to bend at its will." C'mon...you can't really believe this and be able to breathe.

Posted by Ignatius Kizoo on 2017-01-20 17:08:07

Based on your initial assertion I think you meant to write: "...I'd think twice before trying to stick my neck out to employEE people again..."

Posted by Ignatius Kizoo on 2017-01-20 17:01:06

...and where I work at the American Heritage Foundation...we're all "thinkers" and the Kool-Aid is free.

Posted by Ignatius Kizoo on 2017-01-20 16:58:55

Right on...just like the "free market" financial corporate giants and geniuses who gave us the "global meltdown" all in the broad interest of people everywhere...then needed to be bailed out by others - like postal workers who haul their butts to work every day.

I think you may be onto something though in your grasp of how jobs are created. You fire people making a living wage and replace them with twice as many working for less than half as much, then you go back to their fellow working people to fund food stamps to keep them from starving...but just barely.

I suggest you get another moniker because "Thinker" doesn't fit, and if you lack the imagination to do better, I can make you a list, but they'd likely not be to your liking.

How life going for you in Trumptopia anyway? I think you're spewing Fake News.

Posted by Ignatius Kizoo on 2017-01-20 16:53:38

Really? All right sweet heart.. grab a bag and a motorbike and come work with us.

Posted by CandidoCandide on 2017-01-20 16:04:21

It seems that some of you are not familiar with term service and what does it mean... A service, in this case mail delivery, means that profit has it's importance but it is subordinated to the effectiveness of the service and it is ALWAYS the first that grants the profit. If you deliver a shitty service because of poor organization, unreasonable and poorly thought budget cuts, you create the prerequisites of profit. I know and speak with full knowledge of the problem and not by spewing out neo-libtard mantras that were crushed in 2008.

Posted by CandidoCandide on 2017-01-20 16:02:34

Yes they are, most of them however are much stronger donors to the democratic party, which happens to not hold majorities anywhere right now. Regardless, congress should not be beholden to any special interest group, public or private, that effects them from making a clear headed, pragmatic decision.It is very unfortunate that the big business subsidies and support have disrupted the free market into a cycle of bursting bubbles that has shaken the confidence of liberal thinkers in free market capitalism and has them running into the arms of failing public programs that cannot support their customers OR workers, and crushing regulations that only the biggest most powerful private businesses have the means to withstand. Both political parties are responsible for this, but more government intervention is never the answer because its the biggest business of all (sorry Bernie). We can't let it stand in the way of the little guy with the next great idea chasing their own success if their idea is better than the government's idea. (This applies to Post, Infrastructure, Healthcare, Medicine, Green Technology etc. Someone out there always has a better idea than the government's idea)

Posted by Thinker on 2017-01-20 12:57:58

No, unions are not as powerful. Nowhere near it.

Posted by amyinnh on 2017-01-20 12:19:15

Totally agree with you on all that. Government subsidies to big businesses kill the small competitors that try to rise up and join the marketplace, which is not a free market. Government social programs and government subsidized private businesses are in the same vain: they put all their eggs in one basket that they continually prop up regardless of effectiveness, instead of letting the best solution win out. Corruption in congress is absolutely rampant as you said, and must be eradicated, but the Unions are as powerful as any other special interests out there at forcing congress to bend at its will.

Posted by Thinker on 2017-01-20 12:13:49

High drama from an I'm-entitled-to-a-cut-of-every-cent-that-changes-hands predator.Farms, subsidized as essential, subsidies bilked by industry for well beyond nationally essential, so that glut can be sold offshore (corporate welfare). Chronic political "gifting" to Iowa, to buy votes. Friggen corn going into our cars, into all our food, etc.Our corrupt congress, a mere 435, who operates in the interest of Team Congress' bribes, known as "campaign donations". Biggest money laundering facility in history.

Posted by amyinnh on 2017-01-20 11:45:02

That is literally communism and borderline Leninism. So grocery stores have no right to the opportunity to profit off of selling food because its an essential service? If people don't have the opportunity to make profits on their own how are we going to pay for all these social programs that operate at millions of dollars in losses? Additionally, public infrastructure is falling apart all areas and of massively inferior quality to private infrastructure (I have 2 degrees in Civil Engineering, though the argument stands on its own anyway). Finally, the constitution does not mandate the government to set up public infrastructure, only that it has the right to do so. Central Planning doesn't work when you make the government too big to fail just like the big banks.

Posted by Thinker on 2017-01-20 10:35:58

Mail and package delivery is infrastructure. We The People don't owe you opportunity to profitize any essential service.

Posted by amyinnh on 2017-01-20 10:12:55

Its called a market. If the USPS goes under a demand is created and a business can step in and fill the need for the customer. In fact, many competing businesses can step in so that the customer can choose the best service (unlike the USPS which owes you nothing and would never be allowed to fail, and therefore drives competition out of the market). This is how jobs are created. Keeping the USPS running at a loss is the equivalent of a big bank bailout. Pay for play. Too big to fail. The stagnant economic theories the dumbass lawyers and democrats and socialists are parroting these days are laughably shortsighted.

Posted by Thinker on 2017-01-20 10:08:51

But if I were an owner I sure would be. If I were taking my own financial risk to employee people and the government was stepping in to prop up its own failing business to put me out, I'd think twice before trying to stick my neck out to employ people again

Posted by Thinker on 2017-01-20 10:02:48

Nope, I'm a free market capitalist who doesn't support failing social programs that hemorrhage hundreds of millions of dollars or pointless union entitlements that bankrupt the taxpayer, suppress individual advancement, and make sure the unemployed cannot get jobs

Posted by Thinker on 2017-01-20 10:00:57

I can only assume you're a bitter UPS or FedEx owner/worker, who's PO'ed over losing Amazon business.

Posted by amyinnh on 2017-01-20 09:51:54

Congratulations! This is a huge victory, hopefully the start of a trend.

For those who want the USPS to go away, I say you are completely selfish. The USPS costs you nothing, not one single cent, unless you buy a stamp, post a package, etcetera. You choose. To want to see the end of a service that benefits many millions just because you think you don't need it anymore yourself is the height of arrogance and selfishness.

Posted by Iskierka on 2017-01-20 08:40:54

Jeez! Your name is quite the misnomer, isn't it?

Posted by Clarisse73 on 2017-01-20 08:30:08

I am so pleased!! Congratulations, Postal Workers! You certainly aren't the dimwits that this corporate campaign hoped you would be. Congratulations also goes to the AFT, the teachers union for joining the fight and putting their muscle behind this good fight.

Posted by Clarisse73 on 2017-01-20 08:28:13

People in rural areas need the postal service. Staples isn't going to do rural delivery.

People like you are selfish morons.

Posted by writerink on 2017-01-20 01:50:13

OMG..... What a clown

Posted by trebor on 2017-01-19 21:34:47

SMASH THIS UNION AND GET RID OF THE USPS NO ONE WANTS YOU

Posted by Thinker on 2017-01-19 18:19:48

Good for the Postal Workers' union. I worked for Western Union for almost 18 years. All of the operators went through an intensive 4 week training. Along came "agencies" who seemed to operate with little training and made up their own rules, such as what constituted delivery, or when they were supposed to charge a check cashing fee. It was very disheartening. Post offices are in almost every community. They deliver 6 days a week. Postage is cheap. Is everything perfect, no. But privatizing will not improve the Post Office. Improvement by privatizing is a right-wing myth.

Posted by Karen on 2017-01-19 16:58:27

Nice work Postal union workers, we must fight the people who want to take away a good paying job and give to a cheap Staple worker who get paid min wages!

Posted by Victor Manuel Guerra on 2017-01-19 16:44:05

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